on friday, the public order emergency commission released its long-awaited report on the reaction to last winter’s convoy protest, including the use
of the emergencies act to bring about its break-up.
while officially federal in focus, the report has much to unpack for the city of ottawa; the protest’s stage, the jurisdiction that first found itself on the front lines of the response, and the home of residents who felt under siege for three weeks.
here’s what local politicians were saying friday, after the public release of the five-volume report.
ottawa’s convoy-era mayor, jim watson
jim watson issued a statement through his former chief of staff serge arpin.
arpin said it would be the ex-mayor’s only comment at this time.
watson thanked the prime minister for using the emergencies act and said justin trudeau “deserves our thanks for helping to end this out of control situation.”
“it was clear that the city, the ops and their combined resources could not bring this situation under control without reinforcements. the act allowed us to end the nightmare for our besieged residents and our small business community.”
the report finds watson “may have implied” on a call with then-ottawa police services board (opsb) chair diane deans that her continued leadership of the board was contingent on the board changing course on the external hire of matt tourigan as interim chief to replace peter sloly, who had resigned.
this “undermined the board’s ability to exercise its governance and oversight functions and to act decisively,” wrote commissioner
paul rouleau
“it was open to (watson) to communicate his concerns to chair deans, but he should have been careful to not insinuate that failure to comply would have consequences for her continued leadership.”